Looking for experience on Precice for my situation

Edit Post

47 year old male. I have a 1.1" discrepancy in my right femur due to an accident as a teenager and subsequent growth issues in that leg. I'm reasonably mobile, just have to wear lifts on all my shoes. I have some other complications from my accident like knee issues...but I can run and hike and be generally active.

I considered the Ilizarov 20 years ago but was not interested in how invasive/prone to complications it was at the time.

I'm now considering the Precice nail. I have a surgeon who has experience with it and insurance that will cover the costs as well as a job where I can take leave as necessary. I'm in California.

What I'm looking for:
1. Timeline: Is a 4 month timeline to be reasonably mobile again realistic or how long should I expect? That assumes 1 month for growth and then 3 months for healing.

2. Pain: I don't have to be mobile to work and can work from home as long as I'm able to be mentally alert...but wondering how long I should plan to be off. Is 2 weeks reasonable to plan for...or will there be enough pain that I should plan on longer?

3. Other's experience for this "small" of a growth? I understand that it gets riskier and more painful as you push farther. Anyone out there that has only done an inch? I teeter between thinking I'm crazy to consider and thinking why wouldn't I do this?

Thanks in advance for the input.

Edit Post

Thank you both, exactly the kind of feedback that I was looking for. When you say Stryde, is that just the latest generation Precice device?

Edit Post

Confirmed. I will be using Stryde...which WOW...when I looked into this 20 years ago I said "no way! Now, you can weight bear. OMG!!!! I'm almost in tears this is so AMAZING!!!

Another question for the experts. My doctor was a resident under one of the bigger names out of the Los Angeles area in regards to treating bone deformities and growth issues but now he's part of large healthcare organization and is a trauma surgeon. I'm comfortable with him and his experience. But I've heard a lot of mention of PT and how important it is. My healthcare provider is not known to have great PT, and I also wonder how important it is to have a therapist who understands the process? Anyone have any insight in what I need to look for in a physical therapists? How important is it to have someone who understands this process or will a good general physical therapist be sufficient? What sort of exercises/activities are done during lengthening and after?

Continued thanks for the advice!!!

Edit Post

Surgery is 2 weeks from today. I'm so nervous...I'm a pretty calm guy and I'm holding it together but I honestly don't know whether this is going to be excrutiating or not a big deal or somewhere in the middle. I'm psyched up for excruciating so anything better than that is a bonus. I think I can deal with the short term pain, I'm more worried about the longer term risks...but I obviously think it's worth the risk.

Thanks for the encouragement InFullStryde, GhostFish, and Movie.

I'll plan on doing a diary of sorts to represent those of us in the LLD category...there's not as many patient stories on here for LLD as I see for cosmetic lengthening.